Behold, The Power of the Internet

Brian Regan has a routine about not knowing just when to use the “You too” phrase, like in situations where a cab driver tells you to have a nice flight (You too!) or when a waitress tells you to enjoy your meal (You too!).  This is a problem that I can strongly relate to, in fact, I experience a great degree of elation when I manage to stammer out just about any phrase except “You too” in situations like that.  Last week I learned that apparently that is not the only phrase I experience difficulties with, it would appear that I am unfamiliar with when it is appropriate to say thank you.  “Goodbye, Derrik.”  “Thank you.”

I’m proud to say that I didn’t have to go look at a single house this week.  Last Sunday Leslie and I made an offer on a house in Schenectady (home of the world’s highest property taxes… really, in fact, I think that is what is on their Welcome sign).  Monday afternoon, after a couple of rounds of back and forth, I went in and was able to sign a contract on the house.  I spent the rest of the week finalizing the paperwork and we have our inspection scheduled for today.  All in all, things have moved very rapidly, as we had hoped they would.  If everything goes well we could close on the house as early as October 17^th and seeing as we were fortunate enough to find a house that had been recently renovated, the house is move in ready, no small thing when you consider that it is over 60 years old.

This afternoon we had our inspection and while there were a few items of note that needed to be addressed there weren’t any huge surprises… unless you consider the power to the outlets and the garage door (detached garage) were on a switch that was located in the kitchen in the house, the lights (in the garage) however, were not.  Most of the house’s electrical, while if in pretty decent condition, was a mess and needs some work.  Fortunately, I happen to have been born in a family of electricians…  Actually, wiring the garage door opener up to a switch in the kitchen (just the power mind you, not the actual opening and closing of the door) is exactly the kind of quirky thing that has slipped by some of my family in the past. *cough cough* I might be better off handling this myself.

It has been another very busy week at work, even without the added pressure of house hunting.  I have thoroughly immersed myself in the second phase of a project in North Carolina that I initially ran at the site level back in 2011.  In addition I am beginning to learn the true art of juggling as I have been tasked with another project in California that will likely have a commercial operation date (COD) prior to the end of the year.  On top of that there is a third project on the horizon that could likely be starting up before the beginning of 2015.  This is actually huge for us since the segment of the business I hired on with is actually pretty small, and at the time of my interview they only had one project that was on the horizon!

“I don’t know what you are talking about mom, I don’t smell anything!”

Last night I was able to witness first hand just how empowering the internet can be as a tool to consumers.  As I got back to the hotel room last night I was notified via text message that the first leg of my flight home into Chicago had already been canceled due to an “air traffic control” problem.  Naturally I called United to rebook my flight home.  Because a number of flights into and out of Chicago had already been canceled I spent quite a while on hold; once I finally got a hold of a representative she asked me to wait as she looked up alternate routes for me.  As that wait time stretched out longer and longer I decided to get online and look up alternate options myself, just to see if I could get home anywhere close to the same time.  Imagine my surprise when the lady told me that she could not find any flights out until Monday while I was simultaneously looking at 2 different route options that would have gotten me into Lubbock within an hour and a half of my original arrival time.  I politely told her that Monday was not going to work and that she needed to search for other airline options;

“Sir,” she replied, “I already am.”

“That’s funny,” I said, “I’m looking at a number of flights that would get me into Lubbock tomorrow, either one of these two American flights would be perfect.”

“Well, I don’t know why I can’t see them; I’m going to have to put you through to our Help Desk.”

After another ten minutes on hold I was finally connected to another representative to whom I then had to repeat my whole story.  After giving the gentleman the flight numbers for each leg I was looking at (Albany to Reagan, Reagan to Dallas, and Dallas to Lubbock) he was able to locate the route option I wanted.  “Oh, I’m sorry sir, I cannot book this from here, I’m going to have to call US Airways directly.”  At this point despair started to seep in.  After another eight minutes on hold the rep finally came back and I prepared myself for the worst.

“Ok sir, you are all set, your flight to Reagan departs tomorrow morning at 0610.”

“And you got the other two legs of the flight booked as well?”

“Yes sir.”

Well, that was unexpected.  Now, as long as none of my flights fall out of the sky or disappear mysteriously while enroute to Australia I should be home today.  Whew!

I will say this, if I had to fly on a Saturday I sure picked a good Saturday to do it as both Georgia Tech and Oklahoma have bye weeks this week.  I haven’t had the chance to watch a whole lot of college football this season, but is has been wonderful being back in a country where I at least have the opportunity to watch most of the games I want to watch, and for that, among many, many other things I am extremely grateful.

I’m Not In Kansas Anymore

Whew, this week has been a whirlwind of activity.  Monday I left Lubbock and flew up to Schenectady for my first week in my new role; that trip in and of itself was an all-day affair.  Tuesday I officially started my new job, I managed to get onto the GE campus and into the office… it’s amazing where a winning smile and a wink can get you in to.  I’m kidding of course; my smile and a wink were accompanied by a GE badge I had secreted away from my days as a GE intern in Norcross.  As it turns out, it would seem I am one of the few early risers in the GE corporate office.  I was in at 0745 and all the lights were still off and no one from my team was in the office yet.  I hit the ground running and haven’t looked back since.  It has been a long time since I simply haven’t had enough hours in the work day to get everything done that needed doing.  It is kind of refreshing.  Of course it doesn’t help that all of my afternoons are cut short by my house hunting excursions, but what else could I do?  Live in a camper for six months, who wants that?

When I was checking in to my hotel late Monday evening I had a minor malfunction of that filter between your brain and your mouth that keeps you from saying really stupid or inappropriate things, specifically, mine failed altogether.  As I was checking in I asked the desk clerk if they had a suite style room available since I was going to be there for two weeks.  He told me that they had no other rooms available because more than 300 homicide cops from all over the state of New York were staying there for a convention.  Without missing a beat I said, “I guess I’ll need to wait until next week to go after my target.”  That wouldn’t have been quite so bad if I hadn’t happened to catch a glimpse of the guy behind me wearing a CSI lanyard.  I imagine that is probably the glare he gives his suspects in the interrogation room.

The hotel I am staying at is nice and has provided an unending source of amusement for me.  There is a revolving door going in the main entrance that is automatic.  When you are about two feet out from the door it begins to rotate.  The problem is the timing, it spins fast enough that in order to make the first gap in in the door you really have to pick up the pace and even then it is close.  At the same time the door is slow enough that to hit the second gap you have to come to a complete stop and wait for a second or two.  Of course, my personality is such that it dictates that I make it into the first gap.  This whole week I’ve gone in and out of the door thinking how comical it was and knowing that it was only a matter of time until I didn’t quite make the gap…  Well, this morning that finally happened, and it happened in such spectacular fashion that I managed to shoot the gap while leaving my backpack behind to get wedged in the door.  At that point everything came to a screeching halt until I managed to free my backpack and someone walked in front of the sensor causing the door rotation to start again.

No pictures this week, but doing a Google search for people getting stuck in revolving doors provided an amusing distraction.  Turns out there is a Facebook page dedicated to making people get stuck in revolving doors.

Thursday when I got back to the hotel after spending the afternoon looking for houses I was greeted with a huge banner greeting John Somethingoranother, the Supreme Exalted Poobah… or something like that, maybe it was the Grand Exalted Ruler.  Anyway, it turns the New York Elks Cult Club was having a convention at my hotel.  Now, I don’t have anything against the Elks Club, but I can’t help but think that a man with the title “Grand Exalted Ruler” couldn’t help but let it go to his head just a little.  I have a feeling that a man like this probably has a gold plated toilet.

It would appear that the town of Lafayette, GA (pronounced La – FAY – it) now has some competition for the “Most mispronounced town name (as spoken by the locals) of obviously French origin.”  Joining the ranks is now the proud town of Watervliet, NY (pronounced Water – VLEET).  Although not eligible because of its lack of French origin, the town of Colonie, NY (pronounced colo – NEE where the nee is stressed as a separate word) is worth special mention.

They say that acceptance is the first step on the road to recovery.  My name is Derrik Filippo and I have a problem.  My breakfast this morning consisted of Sweet Tarts, gummy worms, and a Dr. Pepper.  Later on when I felt guilty about it I had a couple of bowls of Frosted Mini Wheats.

And with that last little tidbit I will leave you for the week as I plan for the rest of my day to involve looking at more houses and watching college football.

The Lost Paragraphs

Some of the stuff I have written below is a bit dated; this is due to the nature of the topic I covered last week.  I already had some written several paragraphs of my particular brand of humor before I decided to cover the persecuted church and, for obvious reasons, those two topics do not mix particularly well.  So without much ado here are the so-called lost paragraphs.

It turns out that simply relying on all of Jack’s toys to turn themselves off at night is no longer a feasible option.  A couple of nights ago Jack woke up in the middle of the night, not quite crying but doing more than just the moaning that signifies he is about to fall back asleep.  Bleary-eyed, Leslie stumbled into the kitchen to make him a bottle.  After preparing his bottle she quietly tip-toed into his room trying desperately not to disturb him more than he already was.  She stealthily slipped the bottle into his mouth and crept back towards the door.  Suddenly, one of Jack’s toys (which typically requires one to push a button to activate it) started singing, “Welcome to our learning farm…”  Quickly she ran to the toy and switched it off, however, in her panic induced state, instead of switching it off she switched it to “Loud Mode.”  Yeaaaa… I think we might be taking the batteries out of all of his stuff now.

In other news it would appear that there was something I forgot to mention last week, during Leslie’s last ultrasound we found out that we would be having a little girl.  Leslie and I have long since had our girl’s name picked out, actually, we had this name picked out before we ever came up with Jack’s name.  She will be born Ayla Jordan Filippo and we are very much hoping that she won’t be anywhere near as monstrous as her older brother.  Much to my disappointment, I just realized that this girl is going to be born in New York; she’s going to be a New Yorker.  She’s going to be asking for my khakis (car keys) so she can go out and get some cwoffee (coffee).

I had a chance to talk with my new manager this week and hammer down at least a tentative schedule for the three to four weeks.  Monday I will fly to Schenectady to begin training for my new role to and to start the house search.  It is our hope that during the two weeks I am there we will be able to find a house we like.  After that I hope to be home for the weekend to help Leslie finish packing and then I’m off to Durham for a week to kick off my first project.  Then sometime after that I’ll be back to Lubbock to move Leslie, Jack and our stuff from Lubbock to Oklahoma City where we will stop by and pick up some of our stuff; then from OKC to Atlanta where we will stop and pick up the rest of our stuff.  Finally, we will move from Atlanta to Albany…  Oh the joys of having lived in thirteen different places over the past six years.

This weekend, while it is a bit early, we will be celebrating Jack’s first birthday.  We’ll be celebrating early primarily because I will be in New York for his actual birthday, which means that I will have missed the trifecta of his first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthday.  I think my “World’s Greatest Dad” mug is in the mail.  Anyway, we are celebrating his first birthday.  It is hard to believe that he is nearly a year old already.  It is incredible to see everything that has happened in the past year; from wrapping up my last few months in Brazil, to finding a new camper, moving to Lubbock, starting a new project, selling our recently purchased camper, getting a new job, and finally moving to New York.  All of this has happened in the background of my child growing up.  I’m not necessarily surprised at how quickly the year has gone by, I’m just surprised at how much has changed, and this is coming from someone whose entire adult life has been based on change.

Today was my last day on the job and we ended up getting enough rain to drown a fish so work was called early.  This is one of the reasons this week’s letter was so late in getting out.  The other reason is that Jack has been trying to get into my lap and help me write for the past twenty minutes.  Perhaps he takes after his father in that regard.  We’ll see if his humor equals that of his father’s.  If I don’t wrap this up soon I’m going to wind up with him pulling my laptop onto the floor, that or sticky yogurt melts all in my keyboard.

The Persecuted Church

This week’s letter was a difficult one to write.  For much of the week I was without a topic but I still had a couple of paragraphs I had jotted down here and there.  Then when Friday came around the topic I felt burdened to write about was not one that warrants any kind of humor when broached.  So this week’s letter will cover a couple of different topics with vastly different attitudes, I apologize in advance for so

I had a dear friend send out an email this week calling us to pray for the persecuted church in Iraq and Syria.  As most of you are aware there are great atrocities being committed against Christians in those areas.  Murder, beheadings, rape, and slavery just start to scratch the surface; all being committed against anyone who refuses to renounce their faith in Christ.  To be fair, most of this is not new, these types of things have been going all across the world ever since the apostles first started sharing the Gospel message.  What is new, or perhaps different would be a better word, what is different is the concentrated effort with which Christians are being killed and the worldwide media coverage that it is getting.  This is not the first time a group or government has tried to eliminate Christianity within its borders nor will it be the last.

So why am I writing about this?  My answer is twofold, the first should be obvious, these crimes deserve attention if for no other reason than to bring pressure on the leaders around the world to put a stop to them.  The second reason in because of the difficulty I have had in reconciling my beliefs and actions concerning what is going on.  You see, when I read my brother’s email exhorting me to pray I wanted to pray and I did… or at least I started to.  The problem is that after I started I had no idea where to go.  How should I pray for them?  Everything I could think of just felt so shallow or superficial, I felt like if Christians in the Middle East were to hear my prayers it would be a slap in the face.  How can I ask that God’s will would be done when fellow believers are watching their daughters being forcibly dragged away and sold into the sex trade?

I hurt for my brothers and sisters, yet there is no way I can even come close to empathizing with them.  I live a comfy lifestyle in a country and a family where I cannot even begin to comprehend what it means to live in fear that someone my breakdown my door at any moment and accuse me of reading my Bible and to know that not denying it will lead to my torture and eventual death.  I cannot even begin to imagine what it means to live in abject poverty never knowing where my next meal would come from and wondering if God would provide a roof over my head that night.

There is a theology that is prevalent in America, a theology that states that God desires (and will provide) only good (material) things for your life if you will simply pray; in essence you are praying these good things into existence and that if you don’t have these good things then you must not be praying hard enough.  This theology states that when we do things for “God” we’re not really doing them for God, but rather for ourselves; it states that selfishness (not to be confused with self-interest) is acceptable.  This doesn’t jive with what we are seeing take place all over the world, this message is a slap to the face of Christians in Iraq.

It was with a particular sensitivity to this theology, or perhaps I should say to its antithesis that I began my prayers.  I have prayed that their basic needs would be met, that they would be provided with food and water as they flee; I asked that their spirits would be bolstered and that they would be able easily remember the hope they have in Christ.  I asked that evil would be vanquished and that the countries of the world would unite to put down the threat ISIS poses.

Further, when I sought advice on how to better pray for my fellow believers, I was encouraged to pray that they would have courage and boldness, that they would speak to their captors without fear and to boldly proclaim the Gospel.  Even more I was encouraged to give, to provide financial support to organizations that provide relief to these people.

I’ll be perfectly frank, praying for the persecuted church is not something I have done very often or with any kind of consistency, and to be honest, it is not something I have done in a number of years.  It was something I was convicted of for not doing and when I started doing so I felt woefully inadequate.  I know that the Spirit understands/translates the desires of my heart, but my human failings, my inability to put my thoughts into words was discouraging.

So what’s my point?  My point is this, pray.  Pray and give.  Give to those who need it; give to those who are ministering to the church.  But more importantly pray; pray for the persecuted church, pray for the believers in Iraq and Syria who have lost their homes, their families, and even their lives.  But don’t stop there; there are believers all over the world that covet your prayers.  Our prayers can provide comfort to those in chains; our prayers are heard by an all-powerful God who is capable of anything.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that He will answer those prayers in the way we expect, but we can rest assured that He will answer them according to His will and always for the good of those that love Him.  Those may seem like empty words in light of the events happening in the Middle East but they are not.

Father, forgive me for not remembering your church.  Forgive me for forgetting my brothers and sisters who have and are serving you with their very lives.  Teach me to pray for them, teach me to pray for their needs and hear my prayers.  Grant them courage and boldness that they may preach the Word even in one of the darkest parts of the world.  Give me a heart for my fellow believers that I might see them as you see them, that I might love them as you love them.

If you are interested in giving to the persecuted church check out the two links below.  I do not recommend organizations lightly, I believe that we have a certain duty be diligent on where we spend our resources, this includes our charitable giving.  Rarely do I give to an organization; rather I give to people or ministries with which I am intimately acquainted.  That said, I have done my best to vet the following ministries, if you feel led, I would ask that you consider giving to one of the following groups.

Voice of the Martyrs – Approximately 75% of their annual revenues go to support ministry programs

The Persecution Project – Approximately 90% of their annual revenues go to support ministry programs